View Full Version : GoRuck?
Any of you have any experience with this GoRuck outfit? Or is it GORUCK? Prolly doesn't matter.
What is their association with CrossFit? Is there one?
I read through their site and guess you have to sign up for and attend a class to get into a group, the class, then compete, or maybe just participate in the scheduled event when it happens in your city, with your group/class.
Looks fun. I could use some hoo-ah added to my workouts. But not certain of the whole pre-training and class part of it. There is only one gym which offers tailored GR workouts here in KC and it is clear on the other side of the city from me. Too far. Not doable.
So, any of youz done one of these?
I like what they wrote in their cadre bios. Definitely our kinda guys. Correction, they are our guys.
This is their URL:
http://goruckchallenge.com/
DevilSide
02-02-2012, 05:52
Looks good, none of them are in my area though. I went rucking for the first time yesterday and I'm in pain, did 7 miles total, 3.5 to the park in 55 minutes. Worked out at the park, same way back. It's a great exercise and I'll be doing it twice a week.
Roguish Lawyer
02-02-2012, 10:44
Great guys, big supporters of the Green Beret Foundation.
cat in the hat
02-02-2012, 21:40
Not just supporters of the GBF, some of them are SF soldiers.
My SR Medic is involved with GORUCK out of Colorado. I encouraged him to get on this sight so hope to see him here soon.
FXCOfire
02-03-2012, 22:43
Completed one a year ago. Had hope to do the GRC in Key West but the dates changed. Great bunch and it is a great way to meet people for races. Group events have an optional fundraiser for the GBF.
Peerless Defender
07-25-2012, 19:57
The GORUCK organization has several different events that they hold in major cities. Although most of the events are in the United States, they have started doing them in other European countries as well.
The founder, Jason McCarthy, along with many of the cadre, are former Green Berets. They are large supporters of the Green Beret Foundation and donate $10 of every entry fee for their various events. In addition to their donations to the Green Beret Foundation, their GORUCK Tough community of followers (all of whom have completed at least one GORUCK Challenge as a rite of passage) are continuously organizing philanthropic events to raise money for those in need.
The events themselves vary in nature. The GORUCK Challenge is their trademark event which is a team building exercise. It's described as 8-10 hours, 15-20 miles, under-promise and over-deliver. Participants are required to wear a rucksack filled with bricks and complete some considerable PT along with arduous tasks designed to mold you into a cohesive team while giving you a small taste of the Special Forces selection process.
There is so much more to the organization than I can appropriately sum up in a forum setting. One should visit www.GORUCK.com for more information.
I've personally done one of the GORUCK challenges and I'm currently signed up for two more. My experience was fantastic. Ours started at 9:00pm and ended at 10:00 am, we were doing PT in a nearby river, carrying logs for miles without rest, and experiencing what the cadre refer to as, "Good Livin." It was brutal and painful but after the smoke clears you walk away with a feeling of accomplishment, timeless lessons, and many new friendships. I haven't had the pleasure of partaking in any of their other events although they sound very challenging and rewarding. I'm trying to participate in as many of their challenges as I can before I ship to OSUT in November.
perdurabo
09-04-2012, 12:56
The founder, Jason McCarthy, along with many of the cadre, are former Green Berets. They are large supporters of the Green Beret Foundation and donate $10 of every entry fee for their various events. In addition to their donations to the Green Beret Foundation, their GORUCK Tough community of followers (all of whom have completed at least one GORUCK Challenge as a rite of passage) are continuously organizing philanthropic events to raise money for those in need.
For what it's worth, Jason is also the Director of Marketing for the GBF, per http://greenberetfoundation.org/management.html
He seems to do a pretty good job. If you follow his online stuff, he touts the GBF very frequently. Heck knows he's done enough to separate more than a few dollars from me for the GBF.
Chp Wd, Cry H2O
09-04-2012, 15:06
I read through their site and guess you have to sign up for and attend a class to get into a group, the class, then compete, or maybe just participate in the scheduled event when it happens in your city, with your group/class.
Looks fun. I could use some hoo-ah added to my workouts. But not certain of the whole pre-training and class part of it. There is only one gym which offers tailored GR workouts here in KC and it is clear on the other side of the city from me. Too far. Not doable.
So, any of youz done one of these?
I just completed my first GRC in Chicago. It was a fantastic and humbling experience. You do not need to do Crossfit to prepare, but obviously the more fit you are, the better off you will be. The only thing you have to do to attend the event is register and show up at the starting point, which is announced a few days before the event. As far as training, at some point you will be worked to exhaustion, so I don't think there is a bulletproof training regimen. I'd get some time in under your ruck with your bricks, get used to a slow jog (10-11 min miles) for 3-5 miles at a clip, do some pushups, lunges, and burpees with your weighted ruck on.
Our team was composed of lifters, distance runners, triathletes and crossfit people. Everyone had more trouble than someone else at some point in the night, but the team quickly gelled together to help everyone out when they needed it. I'm incredibly happy I signed up.
I signed up for the Jan 26 2013 at 0100 here in Flagstaff. Generally our coldest time of year with the most amount of snow too (oh and at 7000'). Should be fun. :) Goruck folks have answered quickly, professionaly and completely. I'll post an AAR, but I really just suspect selection events in the snow. (I know. Hard up if I'm paying for a selection event.)
Anyone here doing either the philly challenge (3/23/13), or the Trek in may?
I am posting this email I received two days ago to illustrate how GORUCK dealt with a problem:
"Hi everyone -
[Redacted] here. As we say here at the Teamhouse, bad news doesn't get better with time, so I'll cut to the chase: we are canceling GORUCK Trek events going forward from this October 1st.
We really appreciate your vote of confidence in us by signing up, and your support of GORUCK as we grow and develop new events. I'll be straight with you - we simply don't have the resources to make the event what it should be. Feedback from the GORUCK Tough community throughout the development of Trek has been invaluable, and after this trial period we've come to the decision that keeping the event quality consistent for all Trek participants would require significantly more Cadre and support than we currently have available.
We realize you've spent money on this, and we'd like to offer you three options:
1) Direct transfer to Trek: Boston - September 28, 2012 (the Trek grand finale - gotta go out with a bang)
2) Transfer of registration credit to any other GORUCK event or combination of events
3) A full refund
Regardless of which option you choose, we'd also like to offer a free Challenge for you, or for that friend who's always wanted to sign up but never has. There's no rush to decide what you'd like to do. Please email [redacted] with any questions.
[Redacted]
Lead Cadre, GORUCK Events"
Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) this gives me great confidence in GORUCK's integrity and I look forward to participating in many of its events.
Hammock
OK, I started this thread. I did the Kansas City GoRuck Challenge back in early August. It was a ball buster and kicked my ass. But it was awesome in the way that only having your balls busted can be awesome. I had McCall flashbacks all night long, over the 17 miles and 12.5 hours that was our GRC.
Allot of SF buddies have marveled at this and asked why the hell I would want to do something like this.....AGAIN?! Hard to answer that. Partly, I wanted to know if I still could. I did it. Ironically, physical fitness was not the problem. The prob was that I approached the GRC like I was still 30 years old. The worst result of that was I mismanaged my hydration and got way dehydrated. Dumbass. Know better. Water alone will not work, not over 12 hours of constant PT, and especially not if you are over 40, and esp. if you are 50, which I am. Everyone else had tabs and cubes and gels that were packed with electrolytes and various other goodies. Be advised. We started Friday night, finished Sat morn at 0930 and I did not piss until Sunday. I also did not prep well, in terms of hydrating the day of the GRC. I was busy and let that slip. Dumbass. Knew better.
BUT, I will say that all us old soldiers have some advantages, like shoulders and backs for which the ruck is no stranger, and familiarity with how to ruck march, in terms of rhythm, swinging the hips, etc. Some of the kids in my class struggled with just marching en route. Especially the women, of which made up about a 1/5 of the class.
Our class cadre made me Mr. Popular for about 5 minutes at one point during the night. We came to a bridge. The rules for bridges was that we had to pay a price, some sort of sadistic exercise, in order to cross, like a buddy carry. It was into the night and we all were whipped. We had just done some running and everyone was gasping and panting and the cadre said that for this bridge we're gonna have a trivia quiz and if anyone can answer it we'll just cross. Then he asked "Who was the founder of Special Forces?" Everyone freaked. I laughed and grabbed a breath and then barked out "Col. Aaron Banks!" He said, "That is correct. Cross the bridge." No one else of course had a clue of the answer and people were slapping me and thanking me. One girl kept saying "Thank you for knowing that. Thank you. Thank you."
I cramped up real bad in the last mile. Was basically OK until then. But my calves would not allow me to run that last mile. March/walk, yes. But no more running. We marched it on in. When I finally did piss it was so dark gold that I considered bottling it and taking it to a jewelry store or pawn shop to see if I could get a good price for it.
CrossFitNH
10-02-2012, 15:17
I am posting this email I received two days ago to illustrate how GORUCK dealt with a problem:
"Hi everyone -
[Redacted] here. As we say here at the Teamhouse, bad news doesn't get better with time, so I'll cut to the chase: we are canceling GORUCK Trek events going forward from this October 1st.
Are they only canceling the events in your area or all over the country? I ask because there is a GORUCK Challenge in Maine on October 20th which is a few days before I ship, and I was going to sign up. The events are still listed on their website, and the option to sign up for an event is still available. There are no messages on their website stating that all events are cancelled which is why I am looking for some clarification.
Thanks
Last hard class
10-02-2012, 15:52
Are they only canceling the events in your area or all over the country? I ask because there is a GORUCK Challenge in Maine on October 20th which is a few days before I ship, and I was going to sign up. The events are still listed on their website, and the option to sign up for an event is still available. There are no messages on their website stating that all events are cancelled which is why I am looking for some clarification.
Thanks
No go at this station.
Maybe when you are sleep deprived your attention to detail will improve.:D
Good luck
LHC
CrossFitNH
10-02-2012, 16:01
No go at this station.
Maybe when you are sleep deprived your attention to detail will improve.:D
Good luck
LHC
I see what I missed. The GORUCK Trek is different than the GORUCK Challenge.
Thank you for pointing that out to me and answering my question at the same time.
CrossFitNH
perdurabo
10-03-2012, 15:34
I am posting this email I received two days ago to illustrate how GORUCK dealt with a problem:
"Hi everyone -
[Redacted] here. As we say here at the Teamhouse, bad news doesn't get better with time, so I'll cut to the chase: we are canceling GORUCK Trek events going forward from this October 1st.
GORUCK had "help wanted" ads posted for former case officers (at least up until a couple weeks ago). Perhaps GORUCK didn't get enough responses to be able to handle the Trek schedule. I hope that changes, I'd love to hit a Trek one day and play "airsoft spy" for a night.
I signed up for GRC Houston Feb 2, 1:00am :)
Man I'm excited! :lifter
Anyone in SD area? I'd love to do one of the ones coming up, and would like someone to train with.
Friars18X
10-04-2012, 12:45
Doing the GoRuck in Washington, D.C. 20121201. Figure it will be a good test a couple months out from shipping.
MountainMan35
10-04-2012, 13:31
Doing the GoRuck in Washington, D.C. 20121201. Figure it will be a good test a couple months out from shipping.
As am I.
Horrible
10-06-2012, 01:15
Anyone in SD area? I'd love to do one of the ones coming up, and would like someone to train with.
I am in SD and am doing the one on New Years eve!
I am in SD and am doing the one on New Years eve!
I'm thinking of doing the one next year. How long have you been training for it, and what have you been doing?
Horrible
10-07-2012, 16:53
I'm thinking of doing the one next year. How long have you been training for it, and what have you been doing?
Well, I haven't been training for it specifically, but I have been training since about July for an SFRE happening in December. It just so happens that the two events appear to be fairly similar, so I get can train for both :)
I've been rucking twice a week out on Iron mountain and doing interval runs 2-3 times a week. And then just calesthenics about 3 days out of the way, just working to increase numbers.
Did it yesterday. Good cadre. Well formed. Very much reminded me of selection without the being weeded out. Everybody that went was in shape for it, but even then it hit some hard. I didn't quite come straight off the couch, but I could've trained a little more.
Sore today in the expected places. No blisters, no cuts, no bruises.
It rained the ENTIRE time of our event which was 14+ hours (and 33 degrees out). There wasn't a dry spot on anyone including cadre who at the end said that it was officially his coldest Goruck ever.
If you do it, don't take it lightly. :lifter
Mobelizer
01-28-2013, 12:45
I got my GRC coming up Feb 23 0100 in Atlantic City, same day they got a GoRuck Heavy(24 + hrs) at Ft. Bragg.
GORUCK recently restructured their website. giving a better overview of the events you can attend.
over the last month I have been doing (weighted) rucks 5-8 miles combined with PT. Completed a ruck yesterday .8 miles 2 hours.
I hope that within 6 months I can get physically/mentally prepared for "Selection". GRC on Feb 23 should be a decent indicator/benchmark
I'll be doing the GoRuck Challenge in DC on July 4th. I'm really excited, it'll be my first one. I've been doing Crossfit for quite a while now, and been rucking with about 30 pounds over various terrain and distance for the last two months. I think I'm ready physically, it'll be the mental thing that is the toughest to prepare for, but I think I'm ready for that as well. GRC in DC on July 4th? Should be a good time. I'll let you all know how it goes when I get back, and hopefully have some good pictures.
Mack
Might need to take my fat ass of this desk and get it on.
Baltimore event coming up, might go watch, hell might just go and do it.
any more AARs ?
AL :munchin
Horrible
07-02-2013, 01:31
Here's mine from Dec 31, 2012 (Class 367)
Alright, I got to Balboa parkaround 0030 and saw only a few people standing around. The mood was light and we introduced ourselves and talked about the upcoming challenge and such. A small cluster of the guys had apparently just done one in Newport, RI about 3 weeks prior. "Holy shit, these guys are nuts" is what I'm thinking. There's one guy here with a cool beard, and I tell him he has a cool beard. He laughs. One guy there named Matt Francev has done this dumb stuff 8 times prior, including the very first slection class (You can read about it here http://www.gorucknews.com/selection...art-1-the-welcome-party-st-augustine-florida/). Cadre shows up. His name is Mike and people are talking to him like it aint no thing. I thought this was kinda odd, but then again I assumed there was gonna be a whole lot of screaming and hollering once the cadre got there but that turned out to not be the case. Mike didn't have to yell to get us to do stuff.
More people filter in as 0100 comes and goes. We take roll. About 5 people missing. Jokes are made about having Hitler AIDS and TBS (terminal bitch syndrome) and we laugh. Cadre Mike tells us, very politely, to grab our rucks and form two lines facing each other, then put our rucks on the ground and open them. People have trouble forming two parralel lines and it makes me wince. But we get our stuff covered and aligned and open up for inspection. Interesting to see some of the stuff that people have packed. I brought two extra pairs of socks, old issued Nomex gloves, hydration bladder and some granola bars. People had all sorts of extra warming layers and snivel gear. In hindsight, I should've gotten some kind of glove that wouldn't retain water, a bunch of salt tabs (I paid for this later) and maybe an extra t-shirt, but overall I think I packed really well. Everyone's bricks checked out, fortunately. We were given very specific instructions beforehand to make sure that our bricks were well-taped, and had our names and phone numbers on them. Everyone followed this. Mike began introducing himself: Former force reconnaissance, former combat controller, dive qualed, HALO qualed, he's done quite a bit of stuff. He talks a little more, but then sees two folks with packs on walking over to the group. "Rucks above your heads" he says. The two stragglers hustle over to our roll call person and check in, which prompts Mike to let us lower our packs. He talks a little bit more about combat and where he's been. He mentions something like 2 trips to Iraq and 1 to southeast asia or something like that. Two more folks round the corner and we put rucks over our head again. They casually stroll towards us like its nothing. "HURRY THE FUCK UP!!" someone shouts. Thats gets them moving. They check in, packs go down. We form up in columns of two and move out towards the main fountai, about 400m away.
The groans are audible as we approach the fountain, but we don't get to jump in quite yet. Mike calls the team leader up and gives him our instructions: Split up along the brick pathways to the fountains, bear crawl through the little reflecting pools, up the stairs (which have water running down them) and keep going until you reach the end. We do this. Up at the top of the stairs we do a modified high crawl, still in water. The stones hurt my knees. We keep it together and make sure to wait for the folks in the back. They are ever so slow. I can tell my gloves are soaking up water like a sponge and so are my boots. This will become a theme for the day. We reach the end of the pools and form back up. Mike sends us to the fountain and informs us that we are now going to commence with the welcoming party. I'm not sure why, but I let out a tiny little "Rah" and someone behind me giggles. We 360 around the fountain (which is turned off and would probably look gross if it wasn't 0100 and dark) and are told to watch for the pipes. Gingerly we step in. The water is a shock to the system. The air temperature was probably about 45 that night, though the water was likely warmer than that. Instantly people start shaking. I feel fine, strangely enough. Our first exercise is jumping jacks. We manage to do this pretty well, though some folks suffer from Iraqi Army syndrome and cant seem to do jumping jacks correctly. Whatever. Next is cherry pickers. They're easy and we breeze through them. 4-count pushups. Fuck. With packs on. Double fuck. They're actually easier than I thought since we're in deep enough water that we kinda float. There was one guy who was about 6'3 with long, gangly arms that probably didn't enjoy this, but fuck him for being tall. Packs on your front, flutter kicks. Uh oh. I sit down in the water with my head up. My straps are too tight, the ruck in right on my neck. Can't really breathe but I get through the flutter kicks. 8-count bodybuilders afterwards. People need to be shown how to do this 3 times. I call out "It's like a slow burpee. Don't jump at the end". Collective light bulbs go off. We do 25 of them in the time it takes your grandparents to have sex. I'm tired but feeling warm. The chick two people down from me is breaking down and is very, very cold. More jumping jacks. Cherry pickers. Motivated Marine Corps pushups. One guy says "Hooah" and I laugh. He's my battle buddy, a prior Army Engineer officer. Pretty cool guy. Pushups are done, and fountain fun is done. We are soaking wet everywhere, but I'm glad I brought my jacket. It would stay on me the entire time and keep me warm enough without overheating. Also had zippered pockets so I could stow my gloves in them later on when I hated those stupid fucking things.
We move out of the fountain and form up again. Marching south along some sidewalk we get to a ravine and Mike calls the team leader over. We have a downed aircraft in our AO and for some unexplainable reason we have to carry it out instead of hitting it with JDAMs or whatever. At the bottom of this ravine is an enormous dead tree just sitting there. The ground on the sides of the ravine is nice and soft but I almost twist an ankle getting to the bottom. That would've been fun explaining to my friends. "Oh, the ankle? I rolled it trying to get down a ravine to carry a half-ton log out of it with a bunch of strangers. I also had a pack on. Why? BECAUSE I'M RETARDED".
The log is heavy. Really fucking heavy. We had probably 15-18 guys on it and it was a bitch and a half to move. I saw pictures of other GRC's with like 6 guys on a nice straight log and I curse whatever gods put that fucking tree there. Its also got some nice angles to it so we can't just assign short people to the front and tall people in the back. This becomes problematic later on. Getting the log out of the ravine proves tricky because the ground is like mush and that stupid fucking log weighs like 20 tons. Have I mentioned how much I hate that log? I really hate it. While getting it up the hill, we had to bring it down to hip level and set it down a few times in order to rest up a little bit. On the third time doing this, folks pretty much just dropped it and it fell on my arm. Ouch. They certainly got it off quickly enough. The arm was okay, just a little bruising for my troubles. Finally we got that heavy bitch out onto the sidewalk. After slapping backs and shaking hands for a sec, Mike gave our team leader new instructions: We had to move the downed aircraft to the USS Midway for extract. FUCK. Midway is literally 3 miles away through downtown San Diego! I didn't know that at the time (Calculated it later using Google Earth), but I knew that the Midway was faaaaaar away. Ugh. So we picked up the log and off we went on our merry way. The rules are: We will follow all traffic laws. Which means we wait at stop lights, stay on the sidewalk at all times, and move for pedestrians. When crossing crosswalks, the log goes overheadfuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. That's all I could think. Gonna be a long day, for sure. Oh, and we have 1.5 hours to get there. We move on with our log airplane at a fairly good pace. People rotate out as needed. Because the log is so oddly shaped, folks rotating into the wrong spot have to stoop down when moving or suffer a hugely disproportionate weight on them. The groans and shrieks follow our log as we suffer through the night. Shoulders burned. Backs ached. OH! I forgot to mention one thing: We had a mandatory team weight, and another thing we brought along called a "coupon". Rules for the team weight are that it needs to be at least 25lbs and has to be carried the entire way. It also can never touch the ground unless Mike says so. We decided, in light of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School, that we would each bring 26$ in quarters and fill a brick bag with it. I don't know exactly how much it weighed but it didn't seem to be much. Anyhow, the other part: The coupon. The cadre supplied this one, which happened to be a Pelican case filled with ice and about 30 beers. It probably weighed about 50lbs. It also happened to be very awkward to carry by yourself, so at one point one of the guys doing the challenege became McGuyver and rigged up some straps with carabiners on the one handle to allow two people to carry it, which is officially a Good Idea(TM). Unfortunately they spaced the straps a little too unevenly, so the case had a tendency to rotate and smash people's knees as they walked along. It wasn't too bad but it was super annoying.
Horrible
07-02-2013, 01:34
Somewhere after we hit downtown, both quads cramped up, hard. Like, couldn't-flex-my-leg-at-all hard. The pain was pretty bad and I had to get out from the log for a little bit. Some nice guy gave me a few salt tabs and that helped. I'm pretty sure it was Cool Beard Dude from before. After about 5 minutes of hobbling my legs finally decided to work again. We kept the log going down every street with passers-by gawking at our sorry group. Being that it was still around 0200 there were not many people out on the street, although we did wake up a few homeless people (Sorry guys). One guy even offered us some weed. We passed by a Lululemon store and all the Crossfit people made jokes.
Mike informs us that we are taking a detour. We head up a few streets (making sure to painfully elevate our log as we cross each intersection) and stop at a mall parking garage. WHEW! Finally get time to take that load off. We don't get to unceremoniously dump the log just yet, instead we get to kick-roll it over to the building wall. Then we get a bathroom break. We've already had a few cops and other security folks ask Mike what we were doing, so for us to pee, we had to go about 2 blocks away to find a nice covert location (Which turned out to be some bushes). We finished up our business and headed back to the rest of the team, where we munched on some food and drank more water. The chance to rest was nice but did not last very long. We had a new mission: Establish a communications linkup with the extract platform on top of the mountain. In this case, the mountain was the top of the parking garage, which was about 8 stories up (I think). So in true mountain-climber fashion, we had to bear crawl up the stairs. In the end it wasn't so bad, but my waterlogged gloves made a "squish squish squish" sound every time I put my hand down. We form up again at the top of the parking garage and wait for instructions. It is still dark out but downtown San Diego looks beautiful at night with no traffic. The buildings look very sparkly from all the lights. Anyway, we get formed up in a circle and do some squad pushups. If you're not familiar, squad pushups require the person in front of you to put their feet on your shoulders while you do the same to the person behind you. It makes the exercise stupid hard and is a stupid exercise for stupid people. We still had our packs on (as we always did) so it was nearly impossible to get the 10 we were required to do to before moving on. Im sure that Mike didn't approve of our form, but he let us go after enough attempts. We had to peel out of there and down the stairs to make it back to our log. My partner's legs and mine were pretty smoked by this point so going down stairs fast became quite a chore. However, we managed to make it and keep up with the group. Once we got back down off the garage, we were informed that a few of our team were wounded and had to be moved back down, so 4 brave guys got to run back up there and fireman carry the "wounded" team mates back down the stairs. After that, all was well and we got our log back and moved on. I was dreading moving again, as I was under the assumption that we were still a ways away from the USS Midway.
Turns out that we were only 3 blocks away! As soon as we turned the corner we could all see the harbor, which raised our spirits tremendously. We moved out at a faster pace to our rally point, where we were informed by Mike that we had made the time hack and were going to get a small reward. We all cheered and became super excited! And of course, the best part was unceremoniously dumping that fucking log into the ocean. BYE BYE FUCKO!! After that, Mike gave us a little pep speech and told us that we would be getting a 15 minute break to refill water, eat, or do whatever we needed to do. That felt really, really good. I took this opportunity to take off my waterlogged boots (I really should've worn running shoes, as these boots had water in them the entire time) and change my socks. I also filled up my hydration bladder at the local fountain. One girl had brought pizza slices in her pack, which was about as strange a thing as you could see at this time of night, and I'm very surprised her pizza didn't get squished into a mushy mess. I didn't have any but apparently it was very enjoyable. Some people are still shivering from the cold, but I feel pretty warm all over at this point, with the exception being my feet and hands. The break was sorely needed by all of us, except for Matt Francev whom I mentioned earlier, who talked about the second challenge he was going to do that day. Yes, Matt was going to do back-to-back challenges. Fucker is nuts. After a little more talking and resting, Mike gives us our next objective: Spanish Landing, about 4.5 miles away. We put our rucks back and form up in columns of two, ready to move on to the next objective.
The first thing I see as we move out is the skyline to the east. Skyscrapers obscure most of it but you can just make out some faint blue peeking out. I think, “Damn, how long have we been at this?”, and just around the moment I see a clock mounted on one of the piers to my left: 6:15. Turns out that we've been at this for about 5 hours now. It certainly felt like less, but time flies, I guess. We continue to move out and the mood is light. We pass the Star of India. We pass the airport. We do incline pushups on a low wall. “Find a pole” is Mike's way of telling us to elevate our feet and knock out pushups. I guess our pace was a little too leisurely so we ended up hearing this quite a bit on our push to the next objective. Oops, somebody left a glove behind. Mike informs us that this is not acceptable, so we lunge for 100m. I just happen to be carrying the coupon at the time so I am stuck lunging with close to 90lbs of extra gear. Ouch. Lunges are finished. We are informed that further movement under ruck is going to be done as an indian run. Double ouch. Folks in the back take off and move to the front, taking the heavy coupon and slightly-less-heavy coin bag from the people they just replaced. We keep moving. And moving. And moving. We move past the coast guard station. It feels nice just to sprint across intersections rather than having to hoist up that log. We keep moving. Spanish Landing comes into view. Just a little beach in the distance. Our columns of two need to make way on the narrow sidewalk for pedestrians and cyclicsts, both of whom seem out in force today.
Okay this is getting too long to write. Here's some high points:
-Made it to spanish landing. Got wet and sandy. Did got dragged across the beach.
-Went from there to Ocean Beach, 4.5 miles away. Made it under 1.5 hours.
-Got went and sandy there. Ocean waves nearly pulled a few of us out as we did flutter kicks
-Rucked a little way to a ball park. Cracked open the coupon and drank beers. Felt great! Plus we got to wash off (mostly) and change socks. Got a sweet 15 minute break
-Next objective was something like 7 miles away, back at Balboa park. One of the people following us accidentally hit a biker with her elbows, so we made jokes about lethal elbows for the duration of the ruck. Mike tells us to flare our elbows as we indian run, so we do
-Trek under a bridge and find a homeless camp
-Create a field-expedient litter and carry every member of the team. I think we covered a little over a mile in litter carriage
-Break crawl up a church's field
-Finish back at Balboa park
Total: 21 miles, 14.5 hours
GoRuck Challenge AAR – Class 680, Washington DC July 4, 2013
I completed my first GoRuck Challenge in DC on the 4th, and it was an awesome experience. Mind you, I don’t have any previous military experience, but this was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. We started out at 0700 in a large park, where about 250 people were milling around. Some of the cadre said this was close to being the largest class they have ever had, but not quite. I think the majority of people there had completed at least one previous GoRuck, so they knew what to expect. Cadre started yelling at us to form four rows, so we quickly followed orders. They came thru and separated us into teams of roughly thirty people. After that the Welcoming party started and we did PT for about an hour and a half. This consisted of pushups, flutter kicks, squats, jumping jacks, and all variations of those exercises. Eventually the cadre came to claim certain teams, and we all set off on our different routes.
My team had three cadre leading us. They started by asking someone to volunteer who had never done a Challenge before. I was up front, and volunteered right away so that we wouldn’t have to PT more if nobody volunteered. One of the cadre seemed to be the lead, and he pulled me aside and gave us our first mission. We needed to get to a certain spot .7 miles away, and he gave me thirty minutes. No problem I thought; easier said than done. We started out right away and had a local so he knew the quickest route to get there. We were making good time and everyone was feeling good since we had just started. I thought we should be there with plenty of time to spare, I mean, who can’t walk .7 miles in 30 minutes. We about that time cadre called me all the way to the back of the line and stopped to talk to me while the rest of the team continued rucking on. After chit chatting for a little while he stopped, looked at a log in the brush up on the hillside and said I want your team to get that and bring it with you. Ok, done. Now I just have to catch my team and turn them around. I eventually caught them, informed them of the change and we set about getting the log out of the brush. It was tough since there were cars parked all along the street. We eventually got it down and moved out, but had to hurry to make our time hack. Needless to say, we didn’t make it, even though I’m suspicious that we did, but I figured that’s part of the Challenge.
They assigned a new team lead after that, and we continued rucking on, this time doing Indian runs up along the C&O Canal for quite a ways. The rest of the day was spent doing pushup, flutter kicks, squats, rucking, carrying heavy, awkward objects, and getting wet and dirty. We spend quite a bit of time in fountains and creeks, walking on dirt or gravel paths, and generally being pushed to many of our collective limits. The great and rewarding thing about this whole challenge was seeing how we gelled as a team, and supported each other when we started getting tired and frustrated. The cadre gave several speeches when we got tired and started “feeling sorry” for ourselves. Their recurring theme was it could always be worse, and that we can do more than we really think we are able.
We ended up back at the same park as we started 11.5 hours later, and I think we were the last team to get back. Of course once we arrived and saw everyone else lounging around and drinking beers, we were told we still owe the cadre 144 pushups. We started pushing them out and after a while they came by and had us stand up individually to present us our GoRuck Tough patch. It was a great moment and I was extremely proud of myself for completing. Instantly I thought, “I’ll be back for another one.” The cadre seemed to turn 180 degrees in their attitudes toward us and were congratulatory and positive, saying we had done a good job as a team. I talked to a couple of the cadre individually as well as the founder of GoRuck, Jason McCarthy, and they were all very nice and helpful. Cadre Bert gave me some good advice on rest and recuperation so that I wouldn’t be hurting so badly the next morning, and it helped a lot. I wasn’t nearly as sore as I thought I would have been. Overall, the July 4th DC Challenge was a great experience and one that I hope to repeat again in the not too distant future.
Mack
TxRoadwarrior
01-19-2014, 21:14
*bump
Anyone doing one in DFW area this year? I'm signed up for May23rd
GoRuck has a nicely done PT blog on their website if you're looking for something new. Head to the GoRuck homepage and click training.
If anyone is in the area I am looking at attending the Challenge in VA Beach on April 18th. PM me if you are attending and want to meet up/train.
Mack, how many miles did you ruck and how much weight did you carry?
After we got done with our Challenge in DC, I went to my computer and tried to map out our route as best I could remember on Google maps. Our route was around 13-14 miles, which is short compared to what the description says on the website, but you make up for the shorter distance with more PT. There were a lot of groups that day since there was probably over 200 people that attended, and some groups probably did closer to 20 miles. It all depends on the Cadre you have and what their particular interest is for the day.
As far as weight in my ruck, I'd say around 45 lbs. That includes the ruck, water, food, bricks, and a change of clothes for when we got done, plus a celebration beer! That weight will fluctuate slightly as you go since you're constantly drinking water and refilling. Plus you'll have a team weight you will likely be carrying for a portion of the Challenge, and anything else the Cadre decide you need to carry. If you're thinking of doing one, do it! I had a blast and after the first one decided I'd do more. I've got one scheduled that I'll attend in my home town now. Best way to prepare is just throw your ruck on and take long walks, increasing weight and distance. Then throw in lots of push ups, squats, and flutter kicks as you go. Enjoy!
Mack